Timing Your Career Move

Career Corner: A Monthly Executive Search Firm News Article Series.

Timing Your Career MoveAugust 1st, 2014

When you’re thinking about making a move up the corporate ladder at another firm, take your time to find the right position for you. However, knowing when the time is right to jump ship, is crucial in finding a new position.

Here are some warning signs it’s time to look for a new position, according to Martha Heller, managing director of the IT Leadership Practice at ZRG, for CIO.com:

- You report to the CFO now, not to the CEO. Once the CEO restructures and puts you under finance, he or she is sending a clear sign. Unless cutting budgets and watching your pennies is your thing, it is probably time to get out.

- Your company is on the block. If the parent company announces its intention to sell your division, your future will most likely take one of three paths: 1) you will be asked to downsize your organization, 2) you will be asked to take a package and leave yourself, or 3) once the sale takes place, you will be replaced by someone from the new company.

- You don’t find work challenging. If you gain gratification from bringing order to chaos, it is time to move on when you’ve steadied the ship and can put it on auto-pilot. In the best of circumstances, once you’ve turned around an organization, you are in a position to innovate and help grow the company. If you love a big mess, go find another one.

- You hate your new boss. In order to work effectively, members of a management team need to have some rapport. Chances are that you took the job in part because you were excited to work with the person hiring you. If that person leaves, and his or her replacement possesses characteristics and opinions that are anathema to your own, it may make sense to begin a job search. As you spend the time doing your best to nurture the new relationship, you can evaluate new opportunities as they come along.

- Your industry is failing. It is a courageous move to stay with a company that is dying but cannot reinvent itself to survive. Once you’ve gained all that you can from helping a company try to survive in an industry that isn’t making it, you might consider moving to an industry in growth mode.